Mobile confectionaries for selling confections (e.g., snow cones, shaved ice, ice cream, and beverages) have been around for years. Mobility may be provided via truck, trailer, or mobile kiosk and may bring confection sales to places that as a matter of general operation may not have any vending available. These locations may include, for example, festivals, parks, and residential neighborhoods. The dispensing of liquids, likes drinks and flavorings, has typically been done by a person within the truck/trailer, or by the customer at a kiosk.
Structurally, a mobile confectionery will typically include a box-like enclosure having an interior work space outfitted for the preparation and sale of the confections and at least one service window through which the confections are transferred to the customer and the transaction conducted. The work space is typically large enough for at least one person and contains apparatuses for preparing the confections and may include, for example, ice shaving or crushing equipment, slush making devices, ice cream/custard dispensing apparatuses, or the like.
It has been found that in this industry, profitability and customer satisfaction are largely dependent upon providing quality products and fast service. Profitability may also be time sensitive. This may be the case when crowds are present before or after a show or concert or during an intermission when people flood a given area and then depart that area in a short amount of time. In this situation, the length of a line at any individual vendor may be the determining factor for people who arrive after the initial wave of people. A long line at one confectionary may drive later-arriving customers to another vendor with a shorter line. Fast service may drive profitability in this instance. Keeping the line short is an invitation to later-arriving potential customers.
Another factor in customer satisfaction, particularly for frozen confections, such as shaved ice, snow cones, and the like, is the quantity of topping or flavoring applied to the confection. More is most often better. Yet applying more flavoring requires more time and can cause the wait time to increase to the detriment of potential customers. Because confectionaries are a favorite of children, another factor that drives up wait time, and thus drives away potential customers, is waiting for a child to select their topping or flavoring.
Thus, what is sought is a mobile confectionary apparatus, which increases customer satisfaction and increases productivity, particularly for frozen confections, and which overcomes one or more of the shortcomings and problems set forth above.